Everyone has a different idea of what life after work looks like, and this affects how much your retirement will cost. If you want to keep enjoying your current lifestyle when you retire, our experience tells us that you’ll need to save enough to provide you with around 67%* of your current annual income.

The ASFA retirement standard^ provides a guide to how much a person needs in retirement. They estimate the lump sum needed to support a comfortable lifestyle for a couple is $640,000 or $545,000 for a single person, assuming you receive a partial Age Pension. This is based on owning your own home in retirement.

They also give a guide for how much you’d spend annually based on those lump sums. According to ASFA a single person aged around 65 living a modest lifestyle would spend around $24,270 a year, while couples would spend $34,911.

For singles and couples around the same age living a comfortable lifestyle, these amounts increase to $43,695 and $60,063 a year, respectively.

Are your super savings on track?

Now that you have an idea of how much you'll need in retirement, the next step is to work out how you're tracking.

If you want to see how much super you may have at retirement, try our retirement income projector – if you plug in your age, salary and current super balance it will give you an estimate of how much you’ll have as a lump sum and as an income when you retire.

Try the retirement projector

Boost your super

Your employer's super contributions may not be enough if you want to be financially secure when you retire. Starting early is the best and easiest way to boost your super savings. Every dollar you save could make a big difference over time. Here's a guide to how to put more in.

Salary sacrifice

One of the easiest ways to boost your super is to set up ongoing contributions from your pre-tax pay. It's called salary sacrifice and it generally lets you pay less tax and boost your super directly from your pay.

Get your tax to work for you

Get help from the government

Each year the government tops up thousands of super accounts through the co-contribution scheme. If you earn less than $51,813 in the current financial year and make one or more post-tax contributions to your super, you may be entitled to receive a co-contribution of up to $500 from the government.

Get a super bonus from the government

Bring your super together

If you have multiple super accounts, consolidating them into one account may be to your advantage. You could potentially save on multiple account keeping fees which may make a significant difference to the value of your final super benefit when you retire.

And when you only have one super account it’s easier to follow how your super is tracking throughout your lifetime.

Find your super

We can help you

If you’d like some help figuring out how your super is tracking our Member Services team can help you. If you’d like more detailed advice about your super an Adviser from TelstraSuper Financial Planning can help you over the phone at no additional cost as this is included as part of your membership. Getting some help is a great place to start and could make a big difference to how comfortable your retirement is in the future. You can speak to an Adviser by calling 1300 033 166 or requesting a call back online.

* https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/superannuation-and-retirement/how-super-works/super-contributions/how-much-is-enough

^ ASFA Retirement Standard, June quarter 2017.